Winter festival adds up to a huge success
Oban Winter Festival had a £1.72 million impact on the town’s economy and helped raise more than £33,000 for charity last year.
While the festival’s 2018 report proudly blows its own trumpet, organisers say the programme that spanned 10 days in November and was put together by just six people could not have happened without everyone who supported it.
More than 23,000 people visited it in what was its eighth year, with 100-plus events entertaining residents and giving visitors the chance ‘to live like a local’, said the report just out.
Feedback for it was collected by volunteers and from an online survey to measure its success.
Word of mouth has spread fast and tour operators have added the festival dates to their own programmes, it said. Local hotels have also offered discounted rates to increase spend in the town and to encourage even more festival footfall than previous years, the report continued.
Restaurants and other eateries also benefited. The report found 85 per cent of visitors told the survey they ate out during the festival, spending an average of £110.
The visitor survey also suggested people travelling from elsewhere in the UK were staying longer in Oban to enjoy the event with an average of five days recorded. Overseas visitor surveys particularly noted a presence of tourists from Germany, the Netherlands and Italy.
The markets at Oban Distillery, the Corran Halls and at the Perle Hotel attracted 9,500 people with stallholders reporting record sales. The Winter in the Woods event that turned trees at Glencruitten into an enchanted forest was so popular that it will definitely be back this year. A Lego event also received 600 entries for a competition it ran and a fireworks and light show at the festival’s finale was hailed the best yet.
Out of all those who took part in the report survey, 78 per cent said they would be returning for this year’s festival.
The vast and varied festival programme – from haggis hurling to a reindeer parade and clootie dumpling competition, as well as a foraged food and whisky pairing night – was supported by volunteers from the community, charities, groups, schools, funders, businesses and media with the aim of livening up the town at what is traditionally a quiet time of year.
A committee spokesperson said: ‘The committee would like to thank everyone who supported this event, there are too many to list this year but you all know who you are and we thank you. Without support from volunteers and the community this event couldn’t happen.’